The Football Association of Ireland has confirmed that West Ham United’s Declan Rice has won the Young Player Of the Year award.

The award was voted for by members of the SSE Airtricity Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland at a time when Rice was an Ireland international and qualified for the Young Player category.

Declan Rice during Ireland’s game against the USA in June.

Last year saw him win three senior caps, all in ‘3’ International Friendly games.

He has since opted to switch his allegiance to England. The FAI has completed his international transfer via the FIFA protocols and wishes him well in the future.

The FAI said: “This award maintains the integrity of the voting process in conjunction with the Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland and the FAI thanks the jury members for their decisions relating to the awards.”

Rice will not be in Dublin for the 29th ‘3’ FAI International Awards ceremony on Sunday, which will be live on RTÉ2 from 8.30pm.